Medicines access programs to cancer medicines in Australia and New Zealand: An exploratory study

Granting access to new cancer medicines is a growing challenge for pharmaceutical insurance institutions because of the high cost of these medicines [1]. Both Australia and New Zealand have implemented national medicines policies that aim for equitable and sustainable access to medicines [2]. Funding decisions are based on a rigorous value for money assessment that ensures subsidised access to medicines that have been estimated to be cost-effective. However, concerns have been raised on the delays in the regulatory approval and funding of new cancer medicines in these two countries compared to similar countries in Europe and the United States of America [3 –5].

Source: Health Policy - December 20, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Piyush Grover, Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar, Raoul Oehmen, Agnes Vitry Source Type: research